IRVINE – The City Council voted 3-0 in closed session to find that no sensitive information was leaked when the mayor asked a developer to clarify how much land he wanted in a deal that would help build Orange County Great Park.

However, that majority – Larry Agran, Beth Krom and Mayor Sukhee Kang – did not declare whether anything else was discussed in the phone call between Kang and FivePoint Communities' Emile Haddad.

A motion to have an independent investigation of the conversation was defeated 3-2.

The minority – Jeff Lalloway and Steven Choi – had called for the investigation to find out what was discussed in the telephone call because, they say, it might have undermined the city's negotiating position and broken state open-meeting laws and attorney-client privilege.

The phone call was made one day after a previous closed session in which council members reportedly discussed Haddad's offer, which expires Oct. 31.

Kang said he told his colleagues that he would seek clarification on the land question.

City Attorney Philip Kohn reported the findings from the council's Sept. 11 closed session as follows:

1. Kang's request on Aug. 15 that Haddad provide a clarification of the size of the parcel to be transferred by the city pursuant to the Great Park Implementation Proposal did not communicate any confidential, closed session, attorney-client privileged information.

2. At the Aug. 14 closed session, Kang announced his intention to obtain such a clarification, to which there was no objection.

3. Kang was authorized to contact Haddad to obtain this clarification or, in the alternative, the request Kang made of Haddad is ratified as being a proper exercise of his authority.

After learning that some sort of communication had occurred with the developer outside of a formal negotiating committee meeting, Lalloway and Choi sent a memo to City Manager Sean Joyce, asking that the issue be placed on the Sept. 11 agenda. They also went public with their concerns.

While they never said who might have leaked information and they stopped short of saying laws had been broken, their statements implied that something wrong had occurred.

"Leaks of confidential information to a developer while we are in negotiations with the developer for a multi-billion dollar deal at he Great Park should not be tolerated by this City Council," Choi said in his written statement.

Kang and Lalloway make up the city's negotiating committee for the project. Lalloway said he was not in the loop or in agreement with that phone call. Kang, who declined to discuss this issue with the Register, is running for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 45th District.

Haddad and city officials started negotiating the agreement in January.

The deal would enable Haddad to salvage his huge real estate endeavor and allow the city to get the park built after the state yanked $1.4 billion in redevelopment funding.

Haddad's proposal would provide another $641 million to improve and temporarily maintain 1,000 of the park's 1,100 undeveloped acres. The park is about 1,300 acres. City leaders say they are holding out for a better deal for Irvine and for resolution of issues such as traffic. The city would get $211 million upfront and about $430 million over 30 years. That would bring FivePoint's support for the park to $2 billion over 30 years when infrastructure is counted, Haddad said.

The agreement would allow Five Point to more than double the number of residences it could build on its own land in the former El Toro Marine Corps base, from 4,894 to as many as 10,700 homes, among other concessions. City leaders say they are holding out for a better deal and for resolution of issues such as traffic.

Kang, who declined to discuss this issue with the Register, is running for U.S. House of Representatives in the new 45th District.

A grand metropolitan park was promised to countywide voters a decade ago as an alternative to plans for an international commercial airport on the former El Toro base.

The park is planned on about 1,300 acres the developer transferred to the city in the initial entitlement agreements.

FivePoint is a spinoff of Lennar Corp., which purchased most of the former 4,700-acre base from the Navy.

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